The fruity, greenish and floral aroma and/or flavor has been widely used as the flavor or fragrance for various kinds of beverage or food products, various kinds of perfume or cosmetic products, aromatics, and other sanitation materials. It is also widely known that among the fruity, greenish or floral flavor or fragrance, carboxylic acid esters of alcohols play a very important role as a top-note flavor that comes up firstly (see, for instance, Non-Patent Reference 1). However, the carboxylic acid esters of alcohols, which play an important role as atop-note odorant of the fruity, greenish or floral flavor or fragrance, are almost standardized. Accordingly, flavorists and perfumers who concoct the flavor or fragrance are always in demand for compounds having new-type aroma and/or flavor different from existing ones, from the viewpoint of featuring the top-note or differentiating from existing flavor compounds or fragrance compounds.
Non-Patent Reference 1: M. Indo, “Synthetic Aromachemicals, Chemistry and Product Knowledge (Enlarged and revised edition)”, Kagaku Kogyo Nippo-Sha (Mar. 22, 2005), PP. 461 to 462
The present invention has been made in view of such situations as mentioned above and an object of the invention is to provide a compound having a new-type aroma and/or flavor different from existing ones, and also to provide a flavor composition or a fragrance composition having fruity, greenish or floral aroma and/or flavor, which contain this compound.
Further, another object of the present invention is to provide perfume or cosmetic products, toiletry products, bath agents, beverage or food products, and medicines having the fruity, greenish and floral aroma and/or flavor, which contain the aforementioned flavor composition or fragrance composition.
Under the circumstances described above, as a result of intensive studies and investigations, the present inventors have found that esters of 2-methyl-2-pentenol with a formic acid or a carboxylic acid having 1 to 9 carbon atoms, which may have a substituent, show unprecedented excellent fruity, greenish and floral aroma and/or flavor with high natural feeling and are very useful as a flavor material or a fragrance material.
Herein, 2-methyl-2-pentenol that is a synthesis raw material of the carboxylic acid ester of 2-methyl-2-pentenol is a well-known compound. The 2-methyl-2-pentenol is usually produced according to a known method such as a chemical reduction method in which 2-methyl-2-pentenal that is an aldol dimer of propion aldehyde is reduced with hydrogenated sodium borate or a catalytic hydrogen reduction method in which metal and an organometallic complex are used. Further, a carboxylic acid ester of 2-methyl-2-pentenol with new-type aroma and/or flavor, which is used in the flavor composition or fragrance composition of the invention, is obtained by esterification of 2-methyl-2-pentenol. As a method of the esterification of 2-methyl-2-pentenol, various known methods can be adopted.
Further, the carboxylic acid esters of 2-methyl-2-pentenol found this time and having new-type aroma and/or flavor are novel compounds except for an acetic ester, an isopropionic ester, a benzoic ester, a toluic ester and a mesitylic ester.
Accordingly, another object of the invention is as well to provide carboxylic acid esters of 2-methyl-2-pentenol, which have the new-type aroma and/or flavor.
Thus, the present invention came to completion by finding that an ester of a formic acid or a carboxylic acid, which have 2 to 10 carbon atoms and may have a substituent, with 2-methyl-2-pentenol have unprecedented excellent fruity, greenish or floral flavor and/or fragrance with high natural feeling and is very useful as a flavor material or a fragrance material, and also by providing, in addition to the above, new compounds.